Charles Cartwright

Charles Cartwright, born Duncan John Morley on 7 March 1851 in Clerkenwell, London, was an English stage actor, actor-manager, and book writer whose career spanned from the Victorian era through the early twentieth century. The son of George Morley, a Berkshire farmer turned wheelwright, and Caroline, née Lane, a woman of Huguenot descent from Bethnal Green, Cartwright grew up in Warren Street in central London. He died on 25 May 1915.

Educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, Cartwright initially took up a position as a government clerk in London, a role arranged by his parents. The pull of the stage proved stronger, and in 1873 he traveled to Birmingham to audition for a burlesque production of Don Giovanni, adopting the name Charles Cartwright to conceal his activities from his family. He spent the following year seeking acting and singing engagements across England before joining the Prince of Wales Theatre in Liverpool as a stock actor in 1874. There he performed in burlesques and operettas until the arrival of actress Jennie Lee prompted a shift toward serious drama, bringing him a notable role as Chadband in Little Jo, an adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House.

When Little Jo transferred to London's Globe Theatre in 1876, Cartwright moved to the Theatre Royal in Manchester, where he took on roles in Shakespearean revivals under the management of Charles Calvert. An appearance as Osric in Henry Irving's touring production of Hamlet led to an engagement at the Lyceum Theatre in London. His first role there was as Irving's stunt double in Vanderdecken, a play by W. G. Wills and Percy Fitzgerald. He remained at the Lyceum for two years, working first under the management of Sidney Frances Bateman and then under Irving himself, developing a particular talent for credible villainy in productions such as the Dickens adaptation Pickwick, in which he played Job Trotter. His time at the Lyceum ended in 1879 after an ill-timed remark about Irving's appearance during a sea crossing from Scotland to Ireland resulted in Cartwright being assigned a near-silent servant's role in the forthcoming Hamlet revival. He departed the company shortly afterward.

Cartwright then traveled to Bombay, where he had been engaged to manage the opening programme of 35 musical and theatrical productions at the city's new Gaiety Theatre, which opened on 6 December 1879. Returning to London in 1881, he joined William Creswick's company at the Surrey Theatre for a Shakespearean season before joining Edwin Booth's 1882 tour of northern England. In Liverpool he appeared as Troy in J. Commyns Carr's adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd, a production in which Thomas Hardy was personally involved and which premiered on 27 February 1882 before transferring to London. In 1883, Cartwright appeared alongside Kyrle Bellew and Marie Litton in a successful London production of Moths, an adaptation by Henry Hamilton of a novel by Ouida, a role he would reprise multiple times in London, the provinces, and the colonies.

The success of Moths secured Cartwright a steady flow of leading roles, and in 1887 he joined the company at the Adelphi Theatre, where he appeared alongside Olga Nethersole and William Terriss. He performed in 102 consecutive performances of The Silver Falls and appeared in long runs of melodrama including The Bells of Haslemere, The Union Jack, and Harbour Lights. The demanding performance and touring schedule affected his health, and in October 1890 he took a company on a ten-month tour of Australia, opening at Melbourne's Bijou Theatre on contract to the Brough and Boucicault Comedy Company.

Back at the Adelphi in the early 1890s, Cartwright played Oliver Cromwell in The White Rose, which ran from 23 April to 10 June 1892, and Jeptha Grimwade in William Pettit's A Woman's Revenge, which ran for 200 performances from 1 July 1893 to 3 March 1894. He also directed The Two Orphans at the Adelphi from 12 May to 18 June 1894, taking the lead role himself alongside Marion Terry. During this period he maintained contact with prominent literary figures, including Thomas Hardy, with whom he had worked in Liverpool, and Oscar Wilde, who approached him about staging The Duchess of Padua. In 1895, Cartwright entered into a business partnership with theatre manager Henry Dana, taking out a 21-year lease on the Trafalgar Theatre and renaming it the Duke of York's Theatre with the approval of the future King George V. The theatre opened with a successful run of Walter Frith's Her Advocate before Cartwright sub-let it to the team behind The Gay Parissienne, which ran for 369 performances.

In early 1899, Cartwright sailed to Australia for a second tour at the invitation of Harry Rickards, bringing a London-assembled company with Beatrice Lamb as his leading lady and a repertory of seven plays for which he held the Australian rights. The tour covered Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth. Around this time he also established the London Matinee Syndicate Ltd. to solicit investment in theatrical productions. Among the ventures associated with this enterprise was a staging of English Nell at the Prince of Wales Theatre, with Marie Tempest in the title role, which ran for 176 performances.

Cartwright's Broadway career ran from 1904 to 1909. For the 1904–05 season he traveled to America with a company that included his brother-in-law Edmund Lyons to appear in Israel Zangwill's Leah Kleschna at the Manhattan Theatre, with Minnie Fiske in the lead role and Cartwright playing the manipulative Kleschna. The production ran for 131 performances. Also during this period he co-wrote The Proud Laird with Cosmo Hamilton, though the play closed quickly after an unfavorable reception. His Broadway credits further include The Lily, The New Lady Bantock, and The Dear Unfair Sex. Following his return to Broadway for the 1906–07 season, Cartwright toured California in 1910–11 in David Belasco's production of The Lily, appearing at the Clunie Theatre in Sacramento and the Mason Theatre in Los Angeles before returning to England.